Take a moment to choose a position that feels restful and supportive in your particular body.
Allow any physical effort to slowly dissipate.
Allow your eyes to close.
Allow yourself to transition from doing to being mode.
Nothing to do.
This exploration helps us connect to the last and most subtle of the five elements.
Earth,
Water,
Fire,
Air and space.
Space,
Ether or akasha in Sanskrit is the element that holds all other elements together.
All other elements exist or express themselves in space.
Just like all the objects of a room exist within the space of the room.
It is also the element that we are the least aware of.
The element of space is related to our sense of hearing,
Our voice and sound more generally.
It is that which allows us to express our deepest truth.
And so the invitation is to include our voices in this yoga nidhi.
So as you allow your body to rest,
A really nice way of grounding down is to use the healing power of our voice.
Our voices are potent medicine if we allow them to be so.
So if you feel like it,
Bring a gentle humming as you're grounding down.
It is like an om in yoga but the mouth remains closed.
And it sounds like this.
Focus not so much on the sound of your voice.
Focus on the sound of your breath.
Focus not so much on making the sound pretty.
It is not about singing,
Although you are most welcome to sing if you'd like to.
It is more about sending the voice down into your chest and belly and feeling its reverberations in your nose and head.
So we're going to do three hums.
Inhale to begin.
And as the voice starts quieting down,
Bring your attention to the way in which the sound dissolves back into silence.
Allow your breath to settle down.
Become aware of the pause at the end of the exhalation and give it full expression.
Become aware of your body as a whole.
Let your attention scan your whole body very gently from the top of the head through the torso all the way down to the tips of your toes.
Notice any physical sensations,
Tightness,
Warmth,
Comfort,
Discomfort.
Whatever is present in your body right now,
It is fully welcome.
It is exactly right.
Let your awareness expand and open beyond the limits of your physical body.
You can visualize it like a fist which has been held tight in concentration before this practice and can now be fully released and your hand can finally open effortlessly.
Become aware of the space between your fingers,
The space between your toes,
The space between your lips,
The space between the chin and your chest,
The space between your arms and the torso.
All this empty space.
Allow your awareness to expand even further and venture into the room around you.
And if you notice that you are trying to remember the room around you,
Let that go.
Simply forget about it.
Let your awareness stretch in space without knowing anything about this space.
See what you discover freshly for the first time.
Become aware of the space above you,
The space below you,
To the left of you,
To the right of you,
The space in front of you and the space behind you.
Spacious awareness.
Notice whether your awareness is limited in any way or bound by the limits of your body.
See if you can find any edge to your awareness,
If you can find any limit to it.
Is there any place where your awareness ends and the rest of the world begins?
Gently become aware of the sounds that populate the space around you.
Notice the sounds that are nearby and the sounds that are far away.
Notice the sound of my voice coming through the speaker or your headphones.
Notice the sounds that come from your room.
Notice the tendency to want to label those sounds and understand them.
See if you can soften that tendency just a little bit and allow the sounds to travel to you just as they are.
No definitions.
Notice the pitch of the sounds,
The length,
The moving or unmoving quality of the sounds,
The soothing or unnerving quality of the sounds.
Become aware of the gaps between sounds.
These gaps can be a signal for you to relax and open and let go a little more into relaxation.
Start clowing your awareness from the outer world towards your inner world.
Let your awareness come closer to home.
Become aware of the empty space inside your ears welcoming the sounds of the outside world.
Feel the empty space inside your ears and notice any tension that might be held around it.
Maybe you notice some tension in the temples,
Around the crown of the head,
The back of the head,
The top of the neck.
And if you do notice such tension,
Very gently,
Without any judgement,
Allow it to release its grip.
Let the empty space inside your ears expand and open.
Give it full expression.
Bring your awareness to all other empty spaces inside your body.
All these various cavities that make your body light and expansive.
Your groin,
Your belly,
Your chest,
The hollow part of your throat,
Your mouth,
Your nose,
The cavities around your eyes.
You might find that becoming aware of space is not habitual and strange to begin with.
And that's totally normal.
Trust your attention to slowly adjust to this new direction.
Bring your attention to your eyes and the empty space around your eyes.
Give this empty space full expression.
Let your eyes sink back into emptiness.
Let them bathe in the darkness of your eyelids.
Notice any tension that might be held around your eyes.
And allow this tension to soften.
Allow the spaciousness around your eyes to spread into your temples,
Your forehead,
Your brain.
Let it infuse your brain.
No tension.
Bring your attention to the cavities around your nose and behind your nose.
The empty space which receives the air that you breathe.
The nourishing fresh air.
Give this empty space full expression.
Release any tension you might be holding around it.
Let it spread into your cheeks.
Let the muscles of your cheeks relax and soften down towards the earth.
Bring your attention to the empty space of your mouth cavity.
Notice the space between the root of the tongue and the roof of the mouth.
Notice the space between your teeth.
And as you do that,
Allow your teeth to part ways.
Give this empty space full expression.
Let it be here completely.
Release any tension you might be holding subconsciously around this emptiness.
Let the jaws relax.
Let them go.
No effort.
Become aware of the hollow part of your throat.
Give this hollow part full expression.
Let it be here completely.
Let it infuse with lightness any tension that might be held around it.
Let your vocal cords rest.
Let them be bathed in this silence and spaciousness.
No need to say anything right now.
No need to hum.
No need to express yourself.
Just for a few precious minutes.
Become aware of the space in your chest expanding with every inhalation and contracting back down with every exhalation.
With every inhalation,
Invite a feeling of lightness in your whole body.
With every exhalation,
Let yourself savor this lightness completely.
It can be so nourishing.
With every inhalation,
Becoming lighter like a magical balloon.
With every exhalation,
Savoring this lightness even more.
With every inhalation,
Becoming more spacious.
With every exhalation,
Enjoying that spaciousness more deeply.
Once more,
Become aware of this sweet pause at the end of the exhalation and give it your fullest expression.
Become aware of your belly and the empty space of your belly.
Let this empty space be here completely.
No need to hold it in.
No need to fill it up with anything.
Let it be here.
Give it full expression.
Notice any tension that might be held around that space subconsciously.
And let it rest.
Let emptiness infuse it.
Become aware of your groin and the empty cavities around your groin.
Give them full expression.
Release any tension you might be holding around them.
Any tension around your hips.
Let the hips soften down towards the earth.
Let lightness and emptiness infuse your hips.
Find more spaciousness between the hip bones.
Invite a feeling of lightness in your whole torso now.
Your whole torso is feeling light and empty.
And this feeling of lightness is spreading down your legs and sideways into your arms.
There is a feeling of lightness and emptiness throughout your body.
We are indeed mostly empty space if we look at our atomic structure.
But our minds perceive it as dense.
So just for a moment,
Let that perception soften a little bit.
Let yourself be empty and light.
So empty and so light that you can almost lift off the floor and float in the ether around you.
Let yourself float gently.
And as you do so,
Your whole body can relax and soften.
Your physical body starts feeling lighter and lighter.
And your mind is emptier and emptier.
Even your feelings are calmer and calmer.
Your sensations are more and more subtle.
Gently turn your attention away from what you are experiencing and towards the simple experience of being aware.
Turn your attention away from the objects being known and towards the very act of knowing.
Notice that whatever you are experiencing,
You are aware of it.
It's very simple.
Notice that all experience happens in the space of being aware.
All experience takes place in the silent,
Empty,
Spacious background of simply being aware.
Notice that although the content of our experience changes constantly,
The simple act of being aware is absolutely silent,
Changeless,
Ever-present.
Being aware is our primal experience,
The most intimate of experiences,
And the only one which isn't conditioned by the objects in it.
Being aware is here before thought,
During thought,
And after thought.
It is the silent space in which everything else takes place.
The most common way of referring to this experience is eye.
Let your attention turn towards the eye.
Let it sink into its source.
Let it simply return home in the vast spaciousness that you are.
Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti
